Stiffening fabric for garments



(No Model.)

N. JENKINS.

I STIFFENING FABRIC FOR. GARMENTS. NO. 396,820. Patented Jan. 29, 1889.

UNITED STATES ATnNT NICHOLAS JENKINS, OF XVATERBURY, CONNEC'IICUJ.

STIFFENING FABRIC FOR GARMENTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 396,820, dated January 29, 18189.

Application filed April 28, 1887.

T0 aZZ whom it 72mg concern.-

Be it known that l, NIGHOLAs JENKINS, of \Vaterbury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Fabrics Designed as Stil'feners for Clothing, of which the following is a specification.

Each stiffener is composed of h 1 rse-hairs or analogous elastic fibers applied together to form a continuous cord, and saturated with a solution of india-rubber or analogous cementing material which allows the cord to bend. I have devised means for effecting this rapidly and certainly. This is inclosed by braiding with cotton or analogous yarns, and treated with starch smoothed.

I work the stilij'eners in a braiding-machine, and cover and unite them so that the fabric shall be a series of such stiffeners applied together side by side, and connected by yarns of fibrous material extending transversely.

The following is a (lescription of what I consider the best means of carrying out the invention;

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification.

Figure .l. is a longitmlinal vertical. section through a portion of the apparatus employcxl in the manufacture of a single stiffener before the covering is applied. The remaining figures are on a larger scale. Fig. 2 is a side View of a single stiffener pzn'tially covered. Fig. a cross-section on a: a in Fig. 2, on a much larger scale. Figs. l and 5 are on the same scale as Fig. 2, and represent a number of the single st-iifeners associated together by means of the covering. Fig. iis a cross-section, and Fig. is a side view corresponding to Fig. i.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures where they occur.

A is a series of gills or hackles. Horse-hairs M are supplied to these haekles, and are de livered thereii'rom in continuous strings or rovings M in the same manner as has long been practiced with hemp, manila, and other long straight fibers in the manufacture of cordage.

B is a tank containing athin solution of inor analogous dressing and $erial No. 236,412. (No model.)

dia-rubber dissolvml in naphtha or other volatile solvent.

0 D are a pair of rollers pressed gently together and turned by proper mechanism (not represented) at a rate which corrcspomls with the movement of the mrtly-fi)rmed stiffener M. The upper roll, of iron bare. The lower roll, D, has a core of iron and a cover of soft fabric. This roll runs in the dissolved rubber and applies it to the horse-hairs M. It wets their entire surfaces. The roving M, after being thus saturated, is led through a series of long and warm (.illilllllJGlS, E, subject to active currents of air. ()n cnun'ging with the solvent evaporated the horse-hairs are bound togcth er by the cemeirtingrubber, so as to make a reliable stiffener, which I will designate by the same letter, M, as before em ployed for the rovin from which it is formed. These stiffener-s M are afterward carried through a braiding-machine, and covered by braiding on a series of cotton yarns, G. The cords or stiffeners M, composed of elastic fibers cemented together with yieldiu cement, may be covered, each singly, as indicated in Fig. 2.

To make a broad fabric, using these stiffeners as component parts thereof, I apply a n umber of the stiffeners, M, in parallel positions, and cover by a braiding-niacinne arranged to make a continuous tube of such size that on being cut open the :n'iaterial of the tube composed of these stiffeners, with cotton yarns G braided thereon, may be cut into the desired forms for corsets and other articles of dress which require to be stiffened.

Fig. -1L is a horizontal section of the material in the act of being mauu factored in a tubular form. It is not necessary to represent the braiding-machine for effectin this. Such are common in other branches of the arts. The several stiffeners M are brought up through the several guides or posts of the braidingmachine a'rrai'iged in a circle, and the bobbincarriers perform their usual. zigzag movements, traversing alternately inside and outside of the circle, one set of bobbins (not slwwn). traveling from. right to left and the other set traveling from left to right.

The tube, after its completitm and removal from the machine, is cut open by hand or machinery and the material extended and flat toned, after which it may be cut inv goring or other forms, and united by sewing.

Modifications may be made in the details. The completed fabric may be sized and smoothed by ordinary means to give a finished surface.

I can use boiled linseed-oilv partially or completely oxidized, gutiapercha, or various other tough and yielding material as substitutes for the rubber. It is important that it be a yield ing cement of sufl'icient strength and adapted to endure the conditions to which clothing is subjected. .l considerail such cements equivalents of rubber.

I can use the horse-hairs M either oi the full marketable length-such as are used for weaving horse-hai r clot h-or the shorl er hairs, which, being unfit for cloth, are of much less value. I can mingle elastic vegetable tiber with the horse-hairs. I believe some success maybe attained by the use of tam pico or analogous stilt vegetable fiber of proper size and length Without horse-hairs. It is important that the fibers M be strong and elastic and adapted to be coated and cemented together.

I claim as my invention The fabric described composed of a series of compound sti'tfeners of horse-hair or analogous elastic filaments and rubber, each of said compound stilteni-u-s being covered, and the stitleners of the series united by a covering of cotton or analogous yarns, G, extended across from one compound stiffener to the next, forming the fabric, as herein specified.

In testimon y whereof I have hereunto set my hand, at \Vatcrbiny, Connecticut, this 21st day of April 1887, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

NICHOLAS JENKINS. 

